Can someone explain why the outcome isn’t the same?

Question

I’m learning bash and Python. So I try to solve most questions with both Bash and Python. That’s how I ended up with trying to get the length of a string in both Bash and Python, and wc is giving back a different number. Searched the internet to find an answer, but didn't find it.

$ echo "ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp" | wc -c
      31
====
$ echo "ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp" | wc -m
      31
====
$ string="ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp"
$ echo ${#string}                          
30
====
>>> print(len("ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp"))
30

You could have demonstrated this with a short string so the length is immediately obvious. — khelwood, Jul 31 '21 at 12:24
Presumably the difference is that echo appends a newline and wc counts it. — khelwood, Jul 31 '21 at 12:25
Does this answer your question? [WC command in linux](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31584361/wc-command-in-linux) — TERMINATOR, Jul 31 '21 at 12:30

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 31 '21 at 12:29

3

echo produces a new-line which is counted as an additional character, as @khelwood comments:

$ echo "ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp" | python -c 'import sys; print(list(sys.stdin))' 
['ensPpaJxUanRSxRzWSqMcLrYZDhkCp\n']

answered Jul 31 '21 at 12:29

Chris_Rands

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`echo "foo" | hd`. – Jul 31 '21 at 13:03

Can someone explain why the outcome isn’t the same?

1 Answers1